When the homeland of tea in the world is mentioned, we will think about
China and India naturally. But when we mention the origination of the tea
culture, China should be the mother land of that obviously.
China is a country with a time-honored civilization and a land of ceremony
and decorum. Whenever guests visit, it is necessary to make and serve tea to
them and drinking tea is considered as a kind of philosophy. This specialty on
drinking tea in China has existed for 4,000 years. Through the 4,000 years,
Chinese tea culture was developed by the progress of productivity, changes of
dynasties and the evolution of human civilization. In China, tea culture is
related to the knowledge of medical herbs, philosophy, religions, arts, even if
chemistry, biology and so on. There are four periods of Chinese tea
development, which are Herbal Tea Times, Soup Tea Times, Pure Tea Times and
Loose Tea Times.
- Herbal Tea Times (from the Shen Nong era to the Three Kingdoms Period)Long time ago, tea played an important role in people’s social life. As an old saying “when we get up in the morning, there are 7 things should be gotten ready for: firewood, rice, edible oil, salt, soy, vinegar and tea”, that demonstrates the tea is a necessary thing in Chinese daily life.During the legend times, when people found tea leaves, they just put the fresh tea leaves under the sunshine to dry because of the backward of productivity, and considered them as herb, which could cure illness.According to The Shen Nong’s Herbal Classic written in thousands of years ago, it’s recorded that, Shen Nong, a legendary ruler, to save the common people from pain, he selected various wild plants as medicine. Fearless of the sacrifice, he tasted the wild plants himself to learn their effect on the human body and was responsible for finding medical herbs for tribe. One day, he was poisoned by one kind of deadly herb. When he drank the tea liquor occasionally, he was detoxified. From that time on, tea was considered as a kind of medicine which could detoxify. This situation lasted to the end of Han Dynasty (Three Kingdoms Period). In a word, tea at that time existed as medicine for keeping minds calm and detoxification.Up to now, Chinese people drink different teas in different seasons for health. In China four seasons are divided according to give elements principle (wood, fire, earth, metal and water). Drinking tea in suitable season will keep give elements in balance which is good for health. According to give elements principle, spring belongs to wood representing growing, early summer belongs to fire representing hot, mid-summer belongs to earth representing humidity, autumn belongs to metal representing dry, and winter belongs to water belongs to water representing cold. That’s why people drinking green tea in spring, black tea in early summer, white tea in mid-summer, oolong tea in autumn and puerh tea in winter.
- Soup Tea Time (from the Three Kingdoms Time to the Mid-Tang Dynasty)During this period in Chinese history, there are three kingdoms occupied Sichuan, Henan and Jiangsu Provinces separately. After discovering tea, the Chinese people used it as the medicinal herb, vegetable and a kind of drink over 4,000 years. There was a great revolution in tea-drinking history. People began to drink tea not only as a medicinal herb for health but also a kind of food to eat.at that time, people would like to put in fruits, ginger, sugar and other vegetables during brewing tea which looks like porridge. It was Zhu Geliang, a prime minister of the state of Shu Han, Sichuan Province, cultivated people to drink tea with ginger. Then the custom of drinking tea with other food was popular in noble family.
- Pure Tea Time (from the Mid-Tang Dynasty to the end of Yuan Dynasty)Because the steamed green tea was invented in earl Tang Dynasty, the drinking way of green tea was changed at that time. In order to enlarge the fresh taste of steamed green tea, people began to add salt when brewing tea. With the Buddhism populated in the world, Chinese tea drinking way was spread out widely. At the same time, Chinese tea culture was formed primitively.As far as we know, Chinese cuisine is a perfect combination of color, aroma, taste and appearance. So is the tea. To some extent, drinking tea is a kind of art improving the degree of people’s civilization.From the Mid-Tang Dynasty to Song Dynasty, Chinese tea culture was developed and broadcasted widely and quickly. The custom of tea drinking was spread by the royal family luxuriously who regular the way of tea drinking. In the Tang Dynasty, the habit of drinking tea spread from the imperial court to the town and countryside; and it was the literati, hermits and Buddhists who played a leading role in the advocacy of tea culture. With the situation changed in the Song Dynasty (960-1279), the influential intellectuals considered drinking tea as a symbol of elegant life.
- Loose Tea Times (from Ming Dynasty up to now)The cakes of tea were too luxury to ordinary people. Since Ming Dynasty, the rulers called on drinking loose tea instead of cakes of tea. From that time, the way of tea brewing was changed greatly. People began to brew tea by tea pot instead of dropping tea. This simplified the process of tea brewing. From that time, to make a good cup of tea, only needed four steps: warm up tea wares, wet dry leaves perfectly, pour suitable temperature water into tea wares and filter tea liquor in suitable time. In the end of Ming Dynasty, the fermentation skill was invented. There are six basic teas appeared according to different fermentation degrees, which are non-fermented green tea, fully fermented black tea, lightly fermented yellow tea and white tea, semi-fermented oolong tea and post-fermented tea. In this way, the way of tea drinking was changed greatly. There are lots of tea wares, such as tea pot, covered bowl and cup. The material of tea wares is also variety, for example, red porcelain, glass, clay, ceramic and so on.
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